Well, the Cellar Door is now officially open! Last week the garden was whipped into shape, the hundred louvre windows in the cellar door, rendered opaque from the calcium build up from the bore water we use on the garden, were scrubbed clean, ten years worth of boxes, paper work and general office build up were whittled down and brand new "Cellar Door Open" signs were erecetd.
On Friday morning Jamie drove up to Orange to pick up the goat for the spit which he then sat in the front seat of the ute and dutifully drove home - belted in of course....and dead and spit-ready. I, in the mean time, was up to my eye-balls in melted chocolate and stiff egg whites preparing 80 dark chocolate and cardamom mousses for dessert (recipe to follow).
At around 6pm the guests started to arrive. Of course, the dirt road that leads to the cellar door, which had been packed down hard from recent rains, had been graded by council just hours before creating a fine red chalky dust in clouds that swept over us and all our guests in their finery in the cellar door garden as every car arrived. We ask council to grade the road for months and they choose our opening day to get around to it!
But nothing, not dust nor frustrated spit operators, could ruin what really was a perfect autumn evening. The goat was delicious (thanks to the graziers who knew how to carve!) served on crunchy French rolls with spicy beetroot relish and washed down with our 2004 Sangiovese (great feedback on the '04 - it is aging incredibly well!). Our local musicians - David & David - rocked on electric guitar and mandolin under the pepper trees. And the mousses (pl. meese?) went down a treat.
Come Saturday morning, Jamie and I were questioning the sense of having a huge opening party the night before we open to the public as we scrambled out of bed and madly tried to clean up and appear fresh and enthusiatic for customers. (Truth be told, Jamie had cleaned up most of the mess the night before as I lay in bed with a strange "flu" that seemed to have descended on me.)
So we are now open for business. Last weekend and this coming weekend are not expected to be too busy, but the Easter weekend is traditionally one of the busiest in the year for tourism in regional NSW. Now we just need to make some sales!
Stories, observations and just a few recipes from Hamilton's Bluff Vineyard, Canowindra, NSW, Australia.
Hi Julie...found your blog and it looks terrific. Unfortunately I am only home for 30 minutes but when I get back I will go back and read some of the other posts. It looks very much my style of thing. I see also you are a writer ....so here is a challenge for you. Go to the Arthur Stace blog and see the two posts on 50 word stories. I am sure it won't take long to write 50 words....and the story can be about wine. Thanks....enjoyed what I read so far.
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